ARTICLES ABOUT LABOR FORCE BY DATE - PAGE 5

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the Los Angeles riots, many public officials are pointing out that minority workers will represent more than half of the growth in the labor force in the next decade. They are concerned that these workers are badly equipped for the demanding jobs of the 21st century, prompting politicians to propose several measures to deal with the problem. Economists are increasingly concerned that the American economy will pay the price through lower growth in productivity if something is not done soon to address the problem of inadequate education and training.

Male, educated and unemployed? Hang in there. The 1990s could yet be your decade. It may seem surprising in these days of repeated rejection letters, widespread industrial downsizing and enduring economic gloom, but a shortage of educated males is expected to develop during this decade. While the work force will grow 20.1 percent by 2005, demand for executives will expand by 27 percent, professional and specialist jobs will be up 32 percent, and technical positions will increase 37 percent, according to government statistics.

`There are images and realities," says M. Ross Boyle, a man who, to some degree, makes his living trying to discern the difference between the two. Boyle is the chairman-elect of the American Economic Development Council and president of Growth Strategies Organization Inc., a Reston, Va.-based firm that does economic development strategic planning, primarily for private non- profit groups. Like Boyle, Wayne E. Mills, president of the Atlanta-based Industrial Development Research Council and vice president of The Travelers Co. in Hartford, Conn.

Labor Day 1991 is not a day of celebration for everyone. About 8.5 million Americans are out of work. President Bush recently refused to approve a measure extending benefits to the long-term unemployed. Companies in business for generations are shutting their doors and not re-opening. Economists say more and more people are giving up looking for work and are dropping out of the labor force. In Florida, the unemployment rate jumped from 7.5 percent in June to 7.8 percent in July. That means 500,000 people didn`t have jobs.

The recession will be over soon but the recovery will be so gradual in South Florida that it may be hard for you to notice. That was the message from Florida economist Henry H. Fishkind to a group of real estate executives meeting in Dania on Wednesday. "The Persian Gulf war didn`t start the recession, the end of the war isn`t going to end it," he said to members of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks at the Sheraton Design Center Hotel. "It`s a classic recession that began last June caused by a major credit crunch and overbuilding of real estate.

WASHINGTON -- When the Transportation Department handed out more than $3.7 billion in four of its highway programs last year, it relied on 10-year-old population statistics. And when the Interior Department distributed funds for wildlife restoration and outdoor recreation, it also used 1980 numbers. In fiscal 1989, nine federal agencies used 1980 census population figures to distribute $17.4 billion in 45 programs, the General Accounting Office reported last fall. For states like Florida, which grew by more than 6,000 people a week over the 1980s, or California, which grew by 11,000 people a week, the federal government`s reliance on old statistics meant millions of lost federal dollars.

He was called Boston Bob or Bicycle Bob, a Vietnam veteran who always rode his yellow Schwinn and lived on the streets near the encampment of homeless people known as the Jungle. On Friday morning, he was found beaten to death. His body was on a scrap of beige carpet next to a wooden fence that surrounds a trailer park in the 4500 block of North Dixie Highway north of Pompano Beach. An empty bottle of Mogen David lay next to him, soot and leaves crammed inside. A plastic comb was in a jeans pocket.

According to President Bush, the critics are all wrong about his lack of a clearly defined agenda; he really does have one. It is to get the United States ready for the 21st century. "The essential question today is: What are we doing to prepare for the new world that begins 11 short years from now?" Bush said in a speech last Thursday. "That`s what my agenda is all about." That`s a swell idea for an agenda, because the United States has a lot of preparing to do for the next century -- a lot more, in fact, than the president has let on. Here`s our 21st century problem: The baby-boom generation is going to be retiring during the years 2010 to 2030, and paying for that retirement is going to cost one big chunk of money.

Barry M. Sabloff, 42, senior vice president of First National Bank of Chicago, always has been in banking and still works for his first employer. "If you like what you`re doing and have a variety of jobs -- I`ve not been in the same one for more than four years -- why not stay?" said the executive, who recently worked on Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co.`s $1.47 billion purchase of Duracell Inc. from Kraft Inc. "I`ll probably retire from here," he said. In an age when people frequently change occupations and jobs, Sabloff remains a banker and at First Chicago.